How to use the directory
Search by common name, botanical name or a word from the care notes: typing shade finds everything that will forgive a north-facing balcony. The category chips narrow the list to indoor, outdoor, kitchen, medicinal and flowering plants, and the sort menu can put the easiest plants first — a good way to choose a first pot.
Every entry carries a difficulty rating that reflects real homes, not glasshouses. Easy plants survive a forgotten week. Moderate plants want a routine — a feed each month, a prune each season. Hard plants, and there are few, reward attention and punish neglect within days.
Choosing your first three
If you are starting from nothing, take one plant from each of three groups: something leafy for a shaded corner, one herb you cook with, and one flowering plant for the sunniest spot you own. Three pots teach you more about your own light and water than thirty ever will, and they are cheap enough to lose.
Buy saplings for anything that flowers or fruits, and sow seed for herbs and greens — coriander, spinach, mint and amaranth all germinate in a week and cost almost nothing. Where a plant can be grown from a cutting, ask a neighbour before you buy: money plant, mint, curry leaf and giloy all root in water on a windowsill.